Urban Tanker Special Call

Worcester had a major break of the junction of multiple water lines at Washington Square (for those who have been to the Warehouse site, it's about 500' northwest across the highway, in front of Union Station)

Within 1,500' of the break is everything from high-rises to a hospital to abandoned factories.

They special called in four large tankers from the suburbs (Auburn, Oxford, Leicester, and Paxton) to standby in the area until water pressure was restored.

It's also interesting when the city boys have a call outside the hydrant district. Watching them try to remember how to hook up hard suction and actually draft water from a pond or stream is entertaining.

they did something like that in cleveland a few years ago with the big blackout that blanketed the northeast. I believe it was an all- ohio call for anyone to send tankers if they could to help supply water to cleveland, I am sure someone could help me out with info on that as I had only gotten a few stories about it.

Last October,when a Church and several other buildings burned downtown,we had just that scene when several rigs needed refuelling since the job took so long to deal with.There were a few people getting on the news wondering why they didn't just go to the gas station....
On the original topic,my old department's district was well hydranted but we still practiced with a neighboring county's tanker crews.As someone else said,there will be a time when you have broken firemains,so you'd better have an alternate plan to deal with that problem.
Using two 2 1/2" hoses with quick disconnect fittings from the hydrant,they could keep up with our two front line pumpers when they were going full out on the deck guns(1500 gpm each).The practice they did shows in situations where they are really needed.

Originally Posted by FFTrainer

The city residents look at the trucks a little funny.... I think they think a fuel truck is following the engine?!?

Sent to the prison

Jersey City, NJ did a few years back. The replacement of a major valve required the shutdown of the city’s water system. Suburban volunteer FD tankers were assigned to run with the big city guys. When prison riots broke out due to the lack of water, the tankers were sent to supply the prison. Imagine the disappointment. No city “jobs” to talk about. Not helping out a hospital or nursing home that all had no water. Sent to the prison. Never again.

It's also interesting when the city boys have a call outside the hydrant district. Watching them try to remember how to hook up hard suction and actually draft water from a pond or stream is entertaining.

SAME HERE, WATCHING THE BIG CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT GET OUTSIDE OF ITS HYDRANTS IS DOWN RIGHT FUNNY. ITS GREAT WATCHING AN ISO 1 RATED FIRE DEPARTMENT GET OUT DRAFTED BY A WEE LITTLE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT AT A DROP TANK OPERATION.

SAME HERE, WATCHING THE BIG CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT GET OUTSIDE OF ITS HYDRANTS IS DOWN RIGHT FUNNY. ITS GREAT WATCHING AN ISO 1 RATED FIRE DEPARTMENT GET OUT DRAFTED BY A WEE LITTLE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT AT A DROP TANK OPERATION.

Your comments are a little upsetting. Stuff like this is why there is going to be a wall between the career depts and the volunteer depts. So I'd assume they called you in to assist them correct with water movement?? Atleast they called and realize when they're in need of help from another dept capable of moving water. And as far as being a career or a volunteer ff it doesn't matter in my book, but comments like this does nothing but fuel the ****ing match between the two.

Just remember Bush, trucks with large water tanks for water supply and called Tankers (at least in New England) predate Aerial Tankers as a proven technology and common terminology by at least 20 years.

Is funny to see the "Tankers" carrying 800-1000 gallons needing tandem rear axles back in the 1920s and 30s in order to carry their loads!

The wildland guys can throw all the glossary tantrums they want, the structural folks properly have dibs on the definition.

Wasn't a tantrum, I was simply bored and looking to stir the pot up a lil. Mind you, I am trying to bridge from one world to the next. But Do you fellers' use Tender as a term at all? Like I said I am going from BushWacker the wildland Oilfeild/ urban interface(very little structure) guy, to a full fledge Pavement pounder. Diffrent worlds.

No kidding. I would hate to see the FDs around here try and set up a draft. Then again, we would first have to find some hard suction.

The only drafting we did is during our annual underwriting test which means that you're only see one every few years statistically (depending on how the shifts fall). We still carry the steamer pipes :-)

In my area there is limited use of "Hose Tender" starting in the early 1980s, and even that was not universal -- our Chief refused to use the term for our water supply Engine (1500gpm/700gwt/5000' 5"). Other department in town recently switched from Hose Tender to Engine for theirs. That is an item where tender was adopted from the terminology trying to be "standardized" back then. Another department in the area called there non-pumper hose truck simply a Hose.

Beyond that, I can't think of any use around my region of word "Tender" for the fire service.

The only drafting we did is during our annual underwriting test which means that you're only see one every few years statistically (depending on how the shifts fall). We still carry the steamer pipes :-)

Our annual tests are done at the Pierce Contender plant (about an hour from here) and they do the test. The only time our crews get any practice in drafting is when we recert everyone in pump operations and that only happens about every 3 or 4 years.

We do have some hard suction, but its on our oldest pumper that we only use for training. We don't carry it on any of the first-outs or reserves. But I'm pretty sure that old pumper is the only rig around that actually has any.

Your comments are a little upsetting. Stuff like this is why there is going to be a wall between the career depts and the volunteer depts. So I'd assume they called you in to assist them correct with water movement?? Atleast they called and realize when they're in need of help from another dept capable of moving water. And as far as being a career or a volunteer ff it doesn't matter in my book, but comments like this does nothing but fuel the ****ing match between the two.

I love this tanker/tender thing! We never use the word 'tender'; a purpose built truck carrying nothing but hose is a 'Hose Layer', 'cos they lay the hose for long runs. Tanker? Now that's a good one - here a tanker has always been a firefighting vehicle. One with a larger water tank than a pumper, and a smaller output pump. A dual purpose truck for structre and wildfire, equiped as needed in it's own area. So what do we use to carry bulk water supplies you ask? Simple, we hire local water carters with their own 'tankers', and for big nasty wildfires with no local water we bring in bulk milk semi-tankers. We all build and buy for our own situations.

Water, a touchy subject. I just got paged saying that a local secondary school campus is without it's firefighting water supply (the ring main is out for some reason) until further notice. And it's school holidays as well. Nasty combination, I hope the kids don't know the water's been shut off!

Tanker use in a hydrant area

The village department I am with has a rural protection area so we do have a 2000 gallon tanker. This means that only about 50% of our first response district has hydrants. Our tanker is second out for any fire call outside the hydrant area and fourth out for any call inside the hydrant area. We have some very old water mains and we have broken them on more than one occasion, so it is very helpful to have 2000 gallons ready to use while we are laying lines to another main.
A few years ago the combination city department near us had to draft out of the lake they are on. I hear it went so badly that the chief mandated drafting training for all the career drivers on a routine basis.

I don't know how I missed this one, But: "Tender (Tend-er) n. A vessel used to bring passengers, supplies, etc. back and forth from Ship to Shore. 2. A vehicle attached to the rear of a Railroad Steam Locomotive for the purpose of carrying a Fuel and Water Supply."